


The Reading Perch

by dragonydreams



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Birthday Presents, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 21:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14941962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonydreams/pseuds/dragonydreams
Summary: Bookstore AU. Sparks fly when literary agent Leonard finally meets bookstore owner Sara for the first time.





	The Reading Perch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jael](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jael/gifts).



> Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over these characters. I am merely borrowing them from Berlanti Productions, DC Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Television.
> 
> Betas: Thank you to angelskuuipo and shanachie for looking this over for me.
> 
> Author's Note: Happy Birthday @stillthewordgirl!

Leonard sighed as he drove past the "Welcome to Starling City" sign. 

It wasn't that this was his least favorite place to be, but after being on the road for nearly a month, he'd give just about anything for that sign to say Central City instead. 

"Lucky twenty-one," Mick said from the passenger seat. 

Leonard smirked at his oldest friend and client. "You say that about every new town we go to."

"And so far, they've all been lucky," Mick said. "We've sold out at almost every book signing on this tour. Don't want to jinx us now by not calling a new city lucky."

"I'll give you that," Leonard conceded.

Sometimes he couldn't believe how lucky they'd been - and how much the tables had turned for them.

Leonard and Mick had met as kids in juvie. Mick had saved his life when a group of older boys had gone after the scrawny newbie. They'd been close ever since. 

They had made a good life for themselves as criminals. Leonard was the brains and Mick was the brawn. They kept each other balanced. 

What Mick had never told Leonard, was that he enjoyed writing science fiction. 

Leonard knew that Mick enjoyed reading the genre - they both did - but it's quite the leap from reading to writing.

Not until one day when Mick almost shyly approached Leonard to say that he wanted out of the life. He'd written a book and it was going to be published. 

Once he'd gotten over his shock, Leonard had insisted on seeing the contract to make sure that his friend wasn't getting screwed over. Then he asked to read the book. 

And just like that, Leonard became Mick's agent and assistant, fully supporting this turn in their lives. 

Now they were on stop twenty-one of a very successful book signing tour. Independent bookstores only, per Mick's insistence. 

They checked into their hotel and, feeling a bit restless after being in the car for so long, Leonard decided to go check out the bookstore the event would be held at the next day.

The Reading Perch was an eclectic blend of cozy bookstore and pop culture mecca. While they had good sized sections for all of the genres you'd expect to see in a small bookstore, there was also an impressive graphic novel section of the store. 

Interspersed with the books were displays of literary tee-shirts, bags, pillows, figurines, and even those oddly popular Funko Pop dolls. 

Leonard wandered around until he found himself in front of a large display of Mick's book. He picked one up and opened to the back cover to read Mick's bio. It was as much a work of fiction as the rest of what he was holding, but thanks to a hacker he knew, no one would know about their criminal pasts.

He stood there long enough for a pretty blonde young woman to approach him. 

"If you're interested in that book, the author's actually going to be here for a signing tomorrow," she said, gesturing to the poster with Mick's face on it beside the display.

Leonard looked up at her, smirk in place. He noticed her name tag and asked, "Are you Sara Lance?"

The woman looked surprised, then a little wary. "How did you know my last name?"

Leonard gestured to her name tag that bore her name and Manager beneath it before holding out his hand to her. 

"I should probably introduce myself. Leonard Snart. I'm Mick Rory's agent."

Recognition filled Sara's eyes and she immediately shook his hand. "Of course! I should have recognized your voice from our calls. I wasn't expecting to see you until tomorrow."

"We made good time getting into town so I decided to check out the venue. I hope you don't mind."

"Not all. I can give you the two cent tour now, if you'd like," Sara offered.

Leonard carefully set down the book he'd been holding. "I'd like that very much, thank you."

For once, Leonard wasn't just putting on the act he usually had to perform when meeting the store managers at these events. He and Sara had spoken frequently over the past several months while he had been scheduling the tour. They'd had an immediate repartee from their first call and he always enjoyed checking in with her. 

She was much younger than he'd imagined. He knew he was stereotyping her based on her appearance, but she gave the aura of someone who would prefer to be hiking through mountains or white water rafting rather than a person who enjoyed spending their days indoors with books.

"And this is where Mick will be," Sara said, pulling Leonard out of his thoughts. 

She had led him to a nook about halfway through the store. There was a small desk with a comfortable leather desk chair for the author, and a couple of smaller desk chairs pushed against the wall, presumably for the author's entourage. 

Leonard walked behind the desk and experimentally pulled on one of the drawers. Sara pulled a set of keys from a pocket and opened first that one and then the others. Inside were different colored Sharpies as well as some granola bars and gum. 

"Gotta keep them locked or else the contents would keep disappearing. Learned that lesson the hard way," Sara apologized, locking the drawers again once Leonard's curiosity was satisfied.

"I like that you're so well prepared," Leonard said.

"We try to host a lot of these events to engage readers with the authors. We've learned that being prepared always comes in handy."

"As the person who would be running around to find this stuff, it is much appreciated," Leonard said. 

At that moment, Leonard's stomach gave a loud rumble, reminding him that it had been a long time since they had stopped for lunch.

"Have you had dinner yet, Sara?" he asked. "Perhaps we could continue discussing the plans for tomorrow over a meal?"

Sara bit her bottom lip and glanced towards the front of the store. "I'm supposed to help with closing and get everything set up for tomorrow after that."

"What time do you close?" Leonard pressed.

"Nine o'clock," Sara said.

Leonard glanced at his watch. "It's only seven now. How is the pizza place that I passed on my way here? That should give us plenty of time to eat and have you back in time to close."

Sara whimpered. Actually _whimpered_. "You had to go tempting me with the best pizza in Starling," she groaned, dropping her forehead onto his chest. 

"Is that a yes?" Leonard asked, knowing he'd won.

"That's a yes," Sara agreed. "Let me tell Nate that I'm leaving."

Leonard slowly walked to the front of the store, allowing himself to be distracted by the various displays on his way. Sara was waiting for him when he got there, a grin on her face. 

"Enjoy what you see?" she asked, teasingly.

Leonard ran his eyes over her body and smirked. "Very much."

Sara's cheeks flushed and she quickly turned away to open the door and hurry out. 

Leonard caught up to her easily. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"You didn't, not really," Sara said. "I guess I kind of deserved it. You didn't see me giving you pretty much the same look before I approached you. I wasn't expecting you to be so--"

"Old? Tall?" Leonard guessed. 

"Ruggedly handsome," Sara finished. 

It didn't take them long to reach the pizza place. After ordering at the counter, they found a booth and settled in to wait. 

"I don't want to offend you, but I've gotta ask," Leonard started, earning him a raised eyebrow from Sara. "How did you end up working at a bookstore? You don't seem the type, and I've met a lot of bookstore managers over the past month."

Sara laughed and settled against the back of her seat. "I get that a lot. I guess you could say that it's in my genes. The bookstore was my grandmother's. When I was little, my mom used to drop me off there to hang out instead of getting a babysitter. The books were my babysitters. I found myself studying literature in school and after bumming around Europe for a while after graduation, I found myself back at the Perch. With all of Europe at my disposal, I kept finding myself in bookstores so I figured that I may as well as go home to mine."

"It's yours?" Leonard asked, surprised. Her name tag said Manager, not Owner.

"Yeah," Sara confirmed. "My grandma left it to me in her will."

"I'm sorry," Leonard said, automatically.

"I'm not," Sara said. "I mean, I'm sorry that she's gone, of course. I miss her every day; but being in that store is like having her there with me every day, too. I always expect to find her around the next bookshelf or coming out of the stockroom."

"So I should complement her on the fantastic wordplay in the store's name?" Leonard asked.

Sara's face lit up. "You get that? Most people don't. I wouldn't have pegged you for an ornithologist."

"I read the encyclopedia a lot as a child," Leonard said. No need for her to know that it was in juvie. The reading selection hadn't been all that bountiful, but there was a full encyclopedia set that someone had donated. "Starlings are perching birds."

"Guess we're both full of surprises," Sara said.

"It appears so," he agreed. He raised his bottle of water in a toast, "To many more happy surprises."

Sara tapped her bottle against his. "I certainly hope so."

Their pizza arrived and they hungrily dug in, barely talking as they devoured their first slices. 

"So how did you become a literary agent?" Sara asked, once they'd satisfied their initial hunger. "I tried looking you up online, but you're practically a ghost."

"I like my privacy," Leonard said. 

This was something that Hartley had warned him about. He'd asked if Leonard wanted him to create new pasts for him and Mick after wiping their records, but Leonard had said no. He didn't want to have to remember some fake history. He'd always been able to BS his way out of situations when people started asking personal questions and assumed he could do the same now. It wasn't like he usually got chatty on these stops. Usually.

"There's privacy and there's living in the dark ages," Sara said. "No Facebook, no Twitter, no LinkedIn, even."

"Cyberstalk much?" Leonard teased.

"I may have gotten a little curious after our fifth call," Sara admitted, picking at the cheese on the half-eaten slice of pizza on her plate. "I don't usually click so well with someone just on the phone."

Reluctantly, Leonard admitted, "I do have a Twitter account so that I can follow what people are saying about Mick's book. It's just not under my name."

"Is he why you became an agent?" Sara asked.

"He is," Leonard acknowledged. "We've been friends for almost as long as I can remember. He had my back growing up and since I have a better head for business, when he got a publishing contract, I became his agent. It's my turn to watch his back, now."

"Aww, that's so sweet," Sara said.

"I'm not sweet," Leonard insisted, scowling.

"You keep telling yourself that, but I now know better," Sara said, grinning.

"Don't you have a bookstore to get back to?" Leonard said, grumpily.

Glancing at her phone, Sara's eyes widened. "Shit, yes I do."

She took several bites of her pizza, polishing off the slice on her plate in seconds, causing Leonard to stare in awe. She certainly could pack it away for such a tiny woman.

"I was only joking," he finally said.

"I wasn't," Sara said, while chewing. "It's after 8:30. I really need to get back to the store."

"I hadn't realized it was getting so late," Leonard said.

"Time flies, and all that," Sara agreed, wiping her mouth and hands on several paper napkins before standing. "Walk me back?"

"It would be my pleasure," Leonard said, standing.

Leonard would have liked to have walked slowly back to the store, to extend their time together, but Sara kept a brisk pace. She was on the clock, after all. 

"Are you coming in?" Sara asked, when they reached the door.

"I should probably go check on Mick," Leonard said. 

The wind was blowing a lock of hair across Sara's face, and he slowly reached out to brush it off her forehead and behind her ear. The brief touch was electric and he had to force himself to step away from her. 

"I'll see you in the morning," he said. "Have a good night, Sara."

"G'night, Leonard," Sara said, hurrying into the store.

He could hear her apologizing for being late, and the teasing tone of her co-worker in response. 

The next day couldn't come soon enough.

~~*~~

Leonard's alarm woke him the next morning from tantalizing dreams of a certain blonde bookstore owner.

If he found himself shaving a bit more closely today, he told himself it had nothing to do with the beautiful woman he'd be seeing very soon.

Looking through his suitcase, he chose a blue dress shirt to wear with his black jeans. A gray sport coat finished off the look. He knew that Mick would be similarly dressed in blue jeans and a white dress shirt. Some variation of these outfits had become their costumes for these events.

"How's the space?" Mick asked as they settled at their table after having visited the breakfast buffet.

"It's eclectic," Leonard said. "I like it."

"This is the one with the girl you like, right?" Mick asked, causing Leonard to choke on the bite he'd just taken.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Leonard said, coughing.

"Sure you don't," Mick said, dryly. "Because you always choke when I talk about girls."

"How'd you even know about her?" Leonard asked.

Mick rolled his eyes. "Because every time you talked or got a text from her, you'd get this silly expression on your face. It doesn't take a genius to see that you're smitten."

"Since when have you used words like 'smitten'?" Leonard deflected.

"Since I became a successful, published author," Mick retorted. "She that hot?"

"Yes," Leonard reluctantly admitted, "but it's more than just her looks. I really like _her_."

"Mazel Tov," Mick said, taking a bite of bacon. After several bites he noticed the pained look on Leonard's face. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is that she owns a bookstore in Starling City and we live in Central City; when we're not traveling for book signings," Leonard said.

Mick waved him off. "Who said we have to live in Central? More specifically, who said you have to live in Central?"

"Because Central City is our home," Leonard said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "My sister's in Central."

"Lisa travels for work almost as much as we do," Mick objected. "I don't see why we can't work from here instead of Central."

"You want to move to Starling City so that I can date a girl that you haven't even met yet?" Leonard asked, dumbfounded.

"It's not like we have office jobs or anything," Mick said with a shrug. "If you like the girl, I can support that. It's what we do. You'd do the same for me."

Leonard nodded absently. He would drop everything for Mick if he asked him to. And he wasn't even asking; Mick was offering.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Leonard said. "Sara and I haven't even been on a date."

"Didn't you have dinner last night? I'd call that a date," Mick commented.

"How did you even know that?" Leonard asked.

"You're wearing the blue shirt. The one that matches your eyes," Mick pointed out.

"What does the color of my shirt have to do with anything?" Leonard asked, taking a vicious bite of his toast.

"That's the shirt you wear when you want to impress someone," Mick said.

Leonard threw up his hands, knowing there was no way he was going to win this argument, and finished his breakfast in sullen silence. Much to Mick's amusement.

~~*~~

The signing event went off brilliantly. There was already a long line of people when they arrived at the store and Sara was there to greet them.

Mick gave Leonard a wink as he noticed how closely Sara stayed to Leonard's side; her hands fluttering around her as if she wanted to reach out and touch him, and then would have to force herself not to.

Leonard wasn't much better. Seeing Sara again had him wanting to pull her against his side and wrap an arm around her waist to hold her close. It was strange for him to crave casual, physical touch so strongly.

Sara helped Leonard keep Mick fed and hydrated, insisting on breaks once an hour for him to rest his hand.

As the event wrapped up, Mick announced that he was going back to the hotel to rest. 

"Need to go soak my hand in some ice," he said, by way of explanation. 

"Thanks again for choosing the Perch for your stop in Starling," Sara said, shaking his hand.

"It's been our pleasure," Mick said. "I hope to see you again soon."

"Me, too," Sara agreed, her eyes straying to Leonard.

"I'm going to stick around here and help Sara clean all this up," Leonard said, his eyes never leaving Sara.

Mick huffed out a laugh. "You got it, boss. Remember what I said."

"Go ice yourself," Leonard retorted.

After Mick left, Sara asked, "What was that about?"

"Nothing. We'd been talking about how nice it was to spend time together in person, you and me. And what the future could hold."

Sara nearly dropped the pens she'd been putting away. "Even though we live in different cities?"

"What if we didn't have to?" Leonard hesitantly asked.

Sara's face scrunched up in confusion. "But we do. You live in Central and I live here."

"What if I didn't live in Central?" Leonard pressed. "What if I lived here?"

"I can't ask you to move here for me," Sara objected. "We haven't even been on a real date!"

"That's what I told Mick when he suggested that we move here," Leonard said. "You don't want some guy you barely know to descend on your life, no matter how fun the flirtation is."

Sara reached out to grab Leonard's hand as he turned his back to her. "No, that's not it at all. Talking to you is always the highlight of my day. Meeting you yesterday was one of the best days of my life."

"Mine, too," Leonard admitted, entwining his fingers with Sara's. "So, if I stayed, you'd want to see where this flirtation can go?"

"What about the book tour?" Sara asked. "How do I know you don't have some shop owner waiting to fall madly in love with you in every city?"

"Are you saying that you've fallen madly in love with me?" Leonard teased.

"I would have to be mad to have fallen in love so quickly, wouldn't I?" Sara responded. 

Leonard's breath caught. "I-- I--"

"Looks like I've rendered you speechless," Sara said, smirking. 

Leonard could only nod, not wanting to ruin what was happening by putting his foot in his mouth.

"Bet I know a better way," Sara said, stepping closer to him. She rose on her toes and reaching up with her free hand, drew his face down to meet her lips. 

The kiss was as perfect as Leonard could have hoped for. Kissing Sara felt like coming home. 

Sara released his hand and wrapped both arms around his neck, pressing her body against his as the kiss deepened. Leonard held her against him, one hand around her waist as the other slid into her hair.

It was the catcalls from Sara's employees that finally broke them apart. 

"I'll take that as a yes," Leonard said, playing with the ends of her hair.

"Yes," Sara said against his lips, drawing him into another lingering kiss.

Mick was going to spend the rest of the tour gloating about this; but as Sara snaked her tongue into his mouth, Leonard found that he didn't care. To have Sara in his arms like this would be worth all the teasing he was going to get from Mick.

He couldn't wait.

The End


End file.
